Laboratory Services

Effective April 1, 2019, the Provincial Health Services Authority is responsible for most operational activities associated with the Laboratory Services Act. For further information, please visit http://www.bccss.org/clinical-services/bcaplm.

Laboratory medicine is a medical specialty and a cornerstone of patient care influencing 70 to 80 percent of all medical decisions by providing diagnostic and treatment insight into the cause, nature and effects of the disease life cycle.

Laboratory services in British Columbia are administered under the Laboratory Services Act (LSA). The provision of laboratory services in the community and acute care settings fall under the authority of the Act and Laboratory Services Regulation.

In British Columbia, laboratory services are provided in approved laboratory facilities in community and hospital settings under the Laboratory Services Act. The LSA defines a laboratory facility as a part of a hospital that provides laboratory services, a facility that provides laboratory services, or a specimen collection station that is associated with a hospital or facility.

As of October 1, 2015, facilities providing laboratory services formerly governed under the Medicare Protection Act (MPA) or the Hospital Insurance Act (HIA) are considered “grandparented laboratory facilities” and continue to provide laboratory services under the LSA. These include:

Laboratory facilities associated with a hospital as defined in section 1 of the HIA

Diagnostic facilities that were approved (to October 1, 2015) to provide laboratory services under the MPA

Specimen collection stations associated with either a hospital or a diagnostic facility as described above, and

A laboratory that is funded, managed or operated by a prescribed agency (BC Cancer Agency, BC Centre for Disease Control, Children’s and Women’s Health Centre of BC, and the Provincial Health Services Authority)

Under the LSA, the Minister of Health has the authority to approve laboratory facilities to provide laboratory services as benefits. As part of this process, the Ministry of Health adheres to the principle of facilitating reasonable access throughout B.C. to medically necessary laboratory services for beneficiaries.

The Laboratory Services Outpatient Payment Schedule is issued by the Ministry of Health under the authority of the Laboratory Services Act for use by operators of approved laboratory facilities in British Columbia. The Payment Schedule is effective as of October 1, 2015.

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